Google Tells Home Audio Vendors To Ditch Competing Smart Assistants If They Want To Use Google Cast: Variety (variety.com)

Google is telling its home audio vendors that they won't be allowed to add support for smart assistants by rivals such as Amazon's Alexa if they want to continue to use Google Cast, according to Variety. The Mountain View-based company reportedly conducted a meeting in June with 50 of the biggest names of home audio to discuss the plan. The publication adds that Google's talks with OEMs were at least partially successful, with many of those companies planning to unveil their Google Cast-powered smart speakers as soon as next year. From the report:"Google Cast has become a Trojan horse," said one of the attendees, who wasn't authorized to speak on the record with Variety. Google's overtures to consumer electronics makers come at a time of upheaval for many home audio brands. Premium stereo equipment makers, in particular, have seen their sales diminished in recent years by both changing listening habits and a rapid evolution of technology. The move to streaming audio led music fans to massively embrace headphones and cheap Bluetooth speakers. Then Sonos came along and established itself as the market leader for premium Wifi-connected speakers. And finally, Amazon surprised everyone with the Echo, a device that redefined what a speaker does, thanks to smart voice control that can be used to request songs, news headlines, the weather, and even to order a pizza or an Uber.Weirdly enough, Google, Amazon, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft announced a partnership this week to conduct research and promoting best practices on AI.

Comments

Do no evil?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Building with openness and interoperability in mind = nice
Contributing to FOSS community = fluffy
Building your own service "stack" = cool
Pressuring vendors to support your stack exclusively = dick move

If one thing is clear about these (so called) AI assistants, is that they can provide enormous amounts of incredibly juicy data. And it looks like Google wants all of it.

Re:Do no evil?

[squiggleslash]

I dunno, the conversation might have gone like this:

"Oh yes, one other thing. You know those voice assistants? Siri? Alexa? Cortana?"

'Yes, we were planning to integrate them into our systems, we've looked at the market research, and there's a 10% probability that our customers might actually want that in the next ten ye..."

"Don't. I mean, don't tell anyone, but even our "OK Google" voice thing is going to be phased out in favor of just a simple voice dialing thing. And you definitely should knock it off with Siri/Alexa/Cortana/etc. The fact is they're all evil."

"Evil Mr Brin? What do you mean?"

"We found the NSA tapping into OK Google a few hours after launch. Right now, if you use Siri, we've found no less than 27 intelligence agencies, plus the Mafia, the Trump campaign, the RIAA, and the Milk Marketing Board of North America will add your search terms to their databases. And you don't want to know about Alexa, I mean, *whispers* we discovered Oracle has found a way to tap into that."

Kenwood's head of Product Development gasped. "Oracle? You mean... Larry Ellison can hear me say goodnight to my kids every night?"

Sergey nodded. "There's a mountain Island just off the west coast of Hawaii that contains a secret underground base where Ellison collects reports from Alexa, and uses them to determine the right time to strike. We found he'd hacked Google at one point, and were able to feed him false data to throw him off, but it's just a matter of time. The only reason OK Google is still running is because we want him to think it's still valid data."

"We'll remove the functionality."

Re:Do no evil?

[sTERNKERN]

You know Google replaced it's 'Do no evil' with 'Do the right thing' last year, right? It is just the right thing for their business ;)

Re: Do no evil?

[Anonymous Coward]

Googles fucking motto was "Don't be evil "

Re:"won't be allowed"

[Khyber]

You don't need marketshare to be found guilty of anti-trust violations.

Is Google Cast just an Android Intent?

[slaker]

Two things that come to my mind are that Miracast is a standard remote display technology that lots of things support, including many Smart TVs and STBs.

The other thing is that I've run across several non-Google platforms that enable some sort of media casting, using an Android Intent (the Share button, basically) to show media on another device and definitely works with Android to Kodi or Plex Clients or from the desktop with a browser plugin. As far as I know, there's no special Google magic in it.

What's so special about Google Cast in any of this?

Re:Is Google Cast just an Android Intent?

[Anonymous Coward]

The special thing about Google Cast is the six letters G, o, o, g, l, and e. These letters provide the reliability that hardware manufacturers expect. Who else practically guarantees that the devices will be obsoleted in a reasonable timeframe? When Google abandons the product, not only will consumers buy new hardware. The old hardware will completely lose purpose and value, preventing a second-hand market.

Re:"won't be allowed"

[johanw]

Indeed. Google has one megafine coming up from the EU about pressuring gapps exclusively on Android if a vendor wishes to include Google Play, and this could be the next one.

Re: Why would anyone put these things in their hom

[Anonymous Coward]

You just used to the internet to post to slashdot. But nahhhhhhh you don't use the Internet. Where is that high horse when you need him?

In Vino Veritas.

Read until understood

[fyngyrz]

...I'm still reeling from the hyperbole that there are 50 big names in home audio.

You're reeling from poor reading comprehension.

TFS said "biggest names", not "big names."

There are far more than 50 home audio manufacturers, and of that set, 50 of them will be the biggest.

Carry on.

Re:Why would anyone put these things in their home

[Lisandro]

I have intentionally destroyed friendships because of people I was "friends" with having Facebook and google spyware installed on their phones.

I guess they're still weeping over this. You sound like a lot of fun.

Okay, Google

[ThatsNotPudding]

"Look up Standard Oil."